during the opening of a Conference on:
Malawi Before the 2014 Tripartite
Elections: Actors, Issues, Prospects & Pitfalls An Analytical Stock take
Organised by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Institute for Policy Interaction
5-7 December, 2013
SALUTATIONS
- The Ambassador of the Republic of Germany in Malawi
- Development Partners & Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
- Mr. Marcus Schneider, Representative for Friedrich Ebert Stiftung,
- Commissioner Mrs. Gloria Chingota
- Prof. Dr. Christof Hartmann, University of Bochum, Germany
- Prof. Lars Svasand, University of Bergen, Norway
- Dr. Samson Lembani, Scientific and technical advisor to the conference
- Chairperson of the Institute for Policy Interaction, Dr. Nandini Patel
- Members of Parliament
- Traditional Authorities
- Leaders of Political Parties represented here
- Members of the Civil Society
- Members of the Press
- All protocols observed
- Ladies & Gentlemen.
Good morning.
I am very
delighted, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, to make this keynote address at
this important conference. Important
because as Chair of the Commission I take this as a complimentary role to the
statutory function of the Commission in the delivery of credible
elections. I am very optimistic, the
conference will go a long way in enhancing the preparations and delivery of the
first ever tripartite elections in this country. The honest and patriotic
discussions will assist the Commission in this endeavour.
1.Background
Your
Excellency, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
the theme of this conference, ‘actors,
issues, prospects and pitfalls’ in the context of the forthcoming 2014
tripartite elections, illustrates the integral elements of democratic elections
in that it involves an interplay of various actors, forces – social, economic,
political, and a complex web of issues, which have a direct bearing on the
prospects for further consolidation of democracy and challenges or pitfalls
which must be addressed to the maximum possible extent. The underlying objective is to
recognise that political institutions set ‘the rules of the game’ and hence, to
build adherence to the letter and spirit of those rules and ensure predictable
and acceptable behavior among all stakeholders . The code of conduct which was developed and
subsequently signed is an example of the rules being referred to here.
Distinguished Ladies
and Gentlemen, in a conference of a similar nature held a few months ago, our
former Vice President Dr. Justin Malewezi reminded us of why Malawians reject
the sham elections that were held between 1964 and 1992. Indeed, many Malawians
subsequently risked and lost their lives in the quest for free and fair
elections. This is an important reminder for us not to forget where we started
from and how far we have come while preparing for our fifth general and first
tripartite elections, knowing that a society’s past is linked to the future
through the legacies of its institutional makeup and practices.
You will agreed with
me Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen that elections have become an asset to
a democracy if they institutionalize democratic culture and practice. Yet, they
can also become a liability when they are twisted into a vehicle for
institutionalizing and insulating autocracy. When do they become an asset? When
they legitimize the political system and government, through the credible transfer
of national trust to persons and parties, when they provide orderly succession
of governments, when they facilitate selection and recruitment of leaders, when
they provide space for social mobilization and political education and become a
conduit for expression of expectations by the electorate, thereby influencing
public policy. Thus, elections enable
peaceful competition for state power, by channelling political conflicts into
clearly defined procedures for their peaceful settlement.
11. Election
Management bodies in the electoral process
Your Excellency, Ladies
and Gentlemen, for any Electoral Management Body (EMB) to be credible and
effective, sufficient and timely funding as well as human
resources (election officials) who are impartial and independent must be made available. Administering democratic
elections requires that EMBs be visibly impartial and independent
of government, opposition or other influences. This is a critical area,
as the election administration machinery makes and implements important
decisions that can influence the outcome of the elections. The political
circumstances of the particular country, in this case Malawi, need to be taken
into account when assessing the legal framework regulating electoral management
bodies.
The first strategic goal
in the Strategic Plan of the Malawi Electoral Commission 2013 – 2017 is the
Independence of MEC, which states ‘MEC strives for genuine administrative, political and
financial autonomy whist maintaining
public accountability.’ Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, MEC
derives its independence from its status as a constitutional body created under
Section 75 and Sections 76(4) of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi. Section
6 of the Electoral Commission Act No. 11 of 1998 as amended confirms the
independent model of the EMB. In order to realize this objective, the
plan envisages public funding of MEC protected and predictable by the end of
2017. This is to be achieved by concerted steps as proposed in the strategic
plan, hence the need for the support of you all.
Your Excellency,
Ladies and Gentlemen, leveling the
playing field is another strategic goal worth discussing in this conference. This
basically entails ensuring the fairness
of the electoral process and a number of key issues have been identified in
this area: Public media – which, in past elections, have tended to unfairly favour
the party in power to the disadvantage of the other contesting parties. MEC is working with MACRA to start media
monitoring, media reports, and engage with media managers on election reporting.
Let me also inform
the conference that MEC is also collaborating with relevant stakeholders in
organizing live presidential debates. Planning and preparations are underway
for this. This is the first time such an initiative has been created in Malawi.
This, as you will appreciate, is one way of ensuring that the contestants have
an opportunity of reaching out to the masses and also to enable the public
access the policies of the contestants in order to make informed decisions on
the ballot.
Unregulated influence of Money: The playing field is also challenged by the
unregulated influence of money in politics as there is, at this point in time,
no legal framework governing election campaign financing in the country.
However, serious debates have begun and in the last sitting of Parliament the
issue generated much attention and time. Let us hope the momentum will be maintained,
resulting in the formulation of appropriate law.
Distinguished Ladies
and Gentlemen, elections do not take place in a vacuum, hence the Enhancing Stakeholder relationship goal– This
is a goal towards which MEC has made substantial progress in the run
up to the 2014 tripartite elections. Though the concept of National Elections
Consultative Forum (NECOF) is not new, these meetings were not held regularly during
the past elections due to disruptions caused by protracted political
differences and tensions. This time round however, NECOF meetings have taken
place regularly with participation by over 100 delegates – we have held three
of them thus far. To a significant extent, this is building mutual trust and
confidence in the electoral process which is essential for stakeholder
collaboration and maintenance of collective ownership of the electoral process among
all actors.
Besides NECOF, MEC
has been engaging with Civil Society and political parties in numerous foras
provided by CSO bodies such as the Centre for Multi Party Democracy. Your
Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, the views and concerns raised in these
meetings have been seriously taken on board. A case in point was the consideration that MEC gave
to adopting the biometric system of voter registration. But, once the CSOs
networks and other stakeholders raised their valid concerns on this system MEC
promptly reversed the plan.
In addition, MEC has
welcomed Civil Society proposals to run Parallel Vote Tally (PVT) during the
forthcoming elections. This is clear evidence of our openness to proposals that
will enhance the credibility of our election. However, as emphasized during the
last NECOF meeting held on 29 November, 2013, the Commission endorsed the PVT
proposal in its truest sense where
results from all polling stations will be tabulated and not a sampling
tabulation of a few polling stations. I
hope this was made clear and I am only emphasizing that aspect.
111. Some specific steps towards the 2014
tripartite elections – Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, notwithstanding
the unprecedented events that Malawi witnessed since 2009, there has been some
progress made in the following specific areas:
1. Harmonization of electoral laws - Immediately Parliament
authorized the conduct of tripartite elections, there was a need for the
harmonization of the Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act no. 31 of
1993 as amended (PPEA) and the Local Government Elections Act no. 24 of 1996 (LGEA)
in order to ensure a smooth conduct of elections. The current budget sitting of Parliament (May-June
2013) has since passed the proposed amendments. However, not all proposed
amendments were passed.
2. Adoption of
the Civic and voter education strategy.
The Electoral Commission under Section 8(1)(j) of the Electoral Commission Act
no.11 of 1998 is specifically required to promote public awareness of electoral
matters through the media and other appropriate and effective means and to
conduct civic and voter education on such matters. In order to effectively
deliver its mandate on Civic and Voter Education (CVE) for the 2014 tripartite
elections, the Commission developed a strategy to serve as a framework for
coordinating the roles of the various CVE providers whilst ensuring gender
parity, equality and equity in access to information and voter participation.
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, MEC is aware of
the challenges CSOs are facing in accessing funding for the CVE exercise n. The
funding has been limited and delayed considering the demand on the ground and
the fact that this will be the first tripartite elections to be held in Malawi.
It is heartening that the situation is being addressed. MEC commends NICE for doing
its best to effectively deliver its role in the given circumstances. MEC also
appreciates the role of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) with funding
from DfID and USAID for the assistance rendered in some areas of intervention.
3. Codes of
conduct signed with Political Parties, media and Civil society. I am pleased to inform the conference that in order
to ensure that the elections are happening on an even field and also encourage
ownership, the Commission facilitated the development of codes of conduct for
the political parties, the media and accredited civil society
organizations.
The codes provide accepted behavior and actions and
also presents unaccepted behavior.
Voter registration
exercise. Ladies and
Gentlemen, at the end of phase 8 of the registration which was on 1 December
2013, 6,756,528 eligible voters have
been registered. Of these 3,640,417 are
females and 3,116,111 males. The
projection is 94.01% registration,
which is over 15.87% increase from
2010 registration figures which have been set as the baseline. This
information can also be accessed on our website www.mec.org.mw
.
Your Excellency,
Ladies and Gentlemen, MEC has tried to take prompt remedial action for any reported anomaly or shortfall in the registration
process. For instance, where it was reported that in a couple of centres
during phase 1 and 2, eligible voters could not register due to logistical and
administrative hiccups, those centres were re-opened to enable those voters to
register. This has also continued in the
subsequent phases where automatic extensions are done on the following day if
people are still on the queue during closing time. In addition, immediately after end of the
phase, centres that were not functional for the statutory period continue to
operate for equivalent of the number of lost days.
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, preparations
are underway for the candidate nomination process for all the three elections. The Commission will brief Returning Officers
on the nomination process from 5 to 15 January 2013 and nomination forms will
be available for collection to all aspiring candidates from 16 January to 14
February 2013 for collection. Aspiring
candidates for Parliamentary and Local Government Elections will present their
nominations at the Council Headquarters whereas Presidential candidates will
present their nomination papers to the Commission. The presentations will be done from 10 to 14
February 2013 and nomination fees are as follows:-
(a)
Candidates for Presidential Elections:
K1,000,000.00
(b)
Candidates for Member of Parliament Elections:
K200,000.00 for male candidates
K150,000.00 for female candidates
(c)
Candidates for Local Government Elections:
K20,000.00 for male candidates
K15,000.00 for female candidates
Let me mention here that the nomination deposit for
parliamentary and presidential candidates is refundable upon the candidate
getting 5% or more of the total valid votes cast while nomination deposit for
the candidates for Ward Councillor is non-refundable.
IV. Issues for the future
Electoral System Debate- Since 1966, the Malawian National Assembly has been
constituted using a ‘first-past-the-post’
(FPTP) plurality electoral system based on the Westminster model- a system
inherited from elections held in the colony of Nyasaland, and the Central
African Federation administered by Great Britain. The choice of electoral
system was never fully considered nor broadly debated so that the consequences
of the choice or negation of choice recognized. Distinguished Ladies and
Gentlemen, the electoral system question was not touched upon in the transition
negotiations between the MCP government and the UDF-AFORD led opposition,
largely because of a consensus that this was not a priority issue and most
party leaders expressed a desire to continue with the Westminster model.
However, today the electoral system issue needs attention.
Because in the FPTP which is called the ‘winner takes all’ there are
times when the loser who takes it all by winning the seat and losing the vote
like in 2004 elections where the President won with 36% of votes.
Many
discussions have ensued and studies have been conducted on this subject, and
the Law Commission’s Constitutional Review Report also recommends the introduction
of the principle of absolute majority for the winner with 50%+1 votes of the
total vote cast. As work in progress, this will have to be taken up amongst
other issues after the 2014 tripartite elections.
Conclusion -
With such collaboration, I am sure 2014 tripartite elections in Malawi will
surely be a step towards transparent and credible elections, which will set the
stage for a viable, legitimate and strong government irrespective of the party
that wins at central legislative and local governmental level. But we cannot do
it alone. Let me remind you that these elections belong to all of us and it is
therefore incumbent upon all of us to play our rightful roles during the
process. Let us all own the elections, for they are ours!
Your Excellency,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your patience.
May the Almighty God
bless our Nation
Thank you very much.
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